The House on Shalimar Way

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Speaker 19 Tonight, on dateline. Oh, no, hey, this is Leslie.
Where are you?

Speaker 19 Oh, my God, Mario.

Speaker 20 Her screams on that call were so raw and so real.

Speaker 21 I can't believe I'm losing Leslie.

Speaker 22 He walked into the bathroom and he found her on the floor.

Speaker 20 He sort of thought, gosh, what a terrible accident. She slipped in the shower.

Speaker 26 Why is there blood on this wall? Why is there blood on these window shades at the headboard?

Speaker 27 There's no way she fell in here and died.

Speaker 21 I said it's a homicide. Leslie was murdered.

Speaker 20 I thought this can't be happening. How could this man be investigated for his wife's death?

Speaker 29 You have a doctor.

Speaker 19 A very, very likable guy who brings babies into the world.

Speaker 30 My entire family is standing behind him. Do you think we'd be with him if we thought he was guilty?

Speaker 19 The doctor, his wife, and the mysterious end to her life. Accident or murder.

Speaker 27 This is about standing up for Leslie. She didn't deserve this.

Speaker 19 I'm Lester Holt, and this is Date Live.

Speaker 19 Here's Andrea Canning with The House on Shalomar Way

Speaker 36 In a quiet suburban town outside of Syracuse, New York, there's a street called Shalimar Way, a winding cul-de-sac lined with well-adorned mansions, swimming pools, and tennis courts.

Speaker 42 Take this final turn, and there behind the trees lies one of the street's crown jewels, an 8,000-square-foot home owned by a couple who seem to have it all.

Speaker 44 A close family, wealth, prestige.

Speaker 20 They were very involved in the community. Both of them spent their lives giving back.

Speaker 45 Life was good here.

Speaker 2 That is until the morning of September 17th, 2012.

Speaker 41 Oh my God. Oh my God.
My mother. That's my.

Speaker 45 It was just before 8.30 a.m.

Speaker 34 Dr.

Speaker 32 Robert Newlander, an OBGYN, had returned from a jog to discover his wife Leslie on the floor of the bathroom shower.

Speaker 45 He yelled to his 23-year-old daughter, Jenna, to call for help. My mother, I don't know if she's breathing, but she's laying on the ground in the shower.

Speaker 50 Is she unconscious?

Speaker 50 I don't know. I don't have a.
Is she all wait?

Speaker 50 I don't think she's all right. I need to go over there, see if she's okay.

Speaker 21 Oh my god, he's going everywhere. Are you pleased?

Speaker 21 Okay.

Speaker 45 Sergeant Tom Norton of the DeWitt Police Department was nearby when the call call went out.

Speaker 52 Over the radio, I hear an unconscious person call, which we get those all the time. A female had slipped and fell in the shower, and she was unconscious.

Speaker 25 That was all the information you had?

Speaker 52 That was all that I knew going into this.

Speaker 52 I went inside, and this house is enormous, and I'm following the noise, and I go upstairs, and I'm in this office area, and there's a gentleman who I later learned was Dr. Newlander.

Speaker 52 Then there was a female who I later learned was Jenna Newlander. She was on the floor, and she was just screaming hysterically.
And she just kept screaming, mommy, over and over again.

Speaker 52 And it made me focus on her because, like, why is she reacting to this? You know, I mean, we go to people who are passed out all the time.

Speaker 51 Before Norton could get his bearings, a paramedic emerged from the bedroom where the victim was being worked on.

Speaker 52 He says to Dr. Newlander, I'm going to speak to you on your level as a physician.
There's nothing that we can do for her.

Speaker 52 I'm asking for your permission to stop CPR. And I'm like, stop CPR? I mean, this is, someone's just unconscious.
What do you you mean, stop CPR? And

Speaker 52 that made Jenna scream even more.

Speaker 48 That was also the moment when Sergeant Norton realized just who Dr.

Speaker 35 Newlander was and that they had a personal connection.

Speaker 52 My wife used to go to him.

Speaker 25 Oh, okay. So he was really on your radar.

Speaker 52 I didn't know him personally, but yeah, I knew who he was.

Speaker 33 Did he deliver your child?

Speaker 52 His midwife did, but yeah, his office did.

Speaker 28 It's a bit of a coincidence there.

Speaker 21 Correct.

Speaker 52 Yeah, it was strange.

Speaker 45 While another officer stayed with the Newlanders, Norton decided to take a look around.

Speaker 52 And I walked past them into this bedroom, and I just immediately stopped in the doorway because of what I was seeing.

Speaker 2 What are you seeing?

Speaker 52 Off to my right, I see the paramedics working on a female. She's on a backboard.
There's a lot of blood around her. And then I look off to my left, and that's the entrance to the bathroom.

Speaker 52 And there's just blood all over its marble floor. There's blood all over the floor.
It's on the walls.

Speaker 51 Blood, presumably from a head wound after that fall.

Speaker 58 Norton walked over to get a closer look at the body.

Speaker 51 Leslie's hair was matted with blood, and he noticed her left eye.

Speaker 52 It was closed and swollen and completely black. And I'm looking at it and, you know, I'm like, well, I've seen people with black eyes.

Speaker 52 I mean, I've been doing this a long time, and that was unlike any black eye I've ever seen.

Speaker 44 Leslie was officially declared dead at the scene. The news would be impossible for friends like Mary Jambelek to absorb.

Speaker 21 I was confused at first. I thought maybe the information was incorrect.

Speaker 28 Did you say how?

Speaker 28 Details?

Speaker 21 I think I couldn't even ask that question initially because I was too overwhelmed with the news. I just cried.

Speaker 60 Another friend, Terry Barr, heard the news from her daughter, who was close with Jenna.

Speaker 27 I just didn't believe it. I just thought this can't be true.
Jenna had sent out a group text to her friends that my mother's died. She fell in the shower, I think is what it said.

Speaker 25 What are you thinking as you're driving to the new landscape?

Speaker 28 I just couldn't even believe it.

Speaker 21 I just thought, I can't believe I'm losing Leslie.

Speaker 25 And all you know is that it's an accident.

Speaker 21 Right.

Speaker 27 And it just sounded so freaky.

Speaker 45 Freaky for sure.

Speaker 42 After reviewing the scene, Sergeant Norton made a quick assessment.

Speaker 28 He wasn't going home anytime soon.

Speaker 52 I asked the fire chief to remove all of his personnel from the bedroom. Paramedics, everybody, I wanted them all out so that I didn't have to worry about contamination.
I called my captain.

Speaker 52 I told him, quite frankly, I said, I don't know what I have, but you need to come here.

Speaker 33 Crime scene experts were on the way, but what would they find?

Speaker 48 An accident or something much darker?

Speaker 19 When we come back.

Speaker 21 What a loss this was. She's very healthy.
She's athletic. She's strong.
It was almost unimaginable.

Speaker 19 What had happened to Leslie? Sergeant Norton is about to make a curious discovery.

Speaker 52 She was moved over 50 feet from where the shower was. So if the shower is way over here, what is she doing way over here?

Speaker 63 Leslie Newlander was dead after a fall in the shower.

Speaker 61 But responding officer Tom Norton had questions about the scene.

Speaker 45 For one, why had he found her body in the bedroom, not the bathroom?

Speaker 52 She was moved over 50 feet from where the shower was. So that's going through my mind.
If the shower is way over here, what is she doing way over here?

Speaker 60 And there was that strange-looking black eye.

Speaker 28 Answers would have to come from the county medical examiner who arrived at the house.

Speaker 52 I remember he spent quite a bit of time looking at the head head injury, which was just massive. You know, her skull fracture.

Speaker 33 Norton listened as the ME reviewed the scene.

Speaker 65 Yes, there was a lot of blood, but head wounds bleed profusely.

Speaker 66 And the location of Leslie's body didn't seem troubling.

Speaker 65 Dr.

Speaker 28 Newlander told paramedics he carried her to the bedroom so he could perform CPR.

Speaker 67 As for that black eye, The ME said it had resulted from her fall.

Speaker 52 He was explaining that when you have an injury to the skull on the right side, it's common for it to bleed into the left side. Her eye was pooled with blood.

Speaker 52 He explained to us that the injury was very common when you fall and hit your head.

Speaker 25 Did the black eye explanation put things a little more into perspective for you?

Speaker 52 Yes, that made sense.

Speaker 53 Right there at the scene, the ME concluded that Leslie's death was an accident, just as the family said.

Speaker 52 He made the determination that it was consistent with an accidental slip and fall in the shower.

Speaker 25 Are you a little surprised?

Speaker 52 You know, I'm not a medical examiner, so I mean, I take his word for what he's seeing. I told my evidence technician, you know, he's ruled it accidental.

Speaker 52 Finish what you're doing and, you know, and pack up your stuff.

Speaker 45 The house was turned over to the grieving family.

Speaker 47 Mary Jambelek knew it wouldn't be easy for Leslie's many loved ones to say goodbye.

Speaker 21 What a loss this was for Bob, for Jenna, for her other kids, for the community, for her friends. It was almost unimaginable.

Speaker 61 Mary says that together, Leslie and Bob were a force to be reckoned with.

Speaker 21 They just always seemed to have a very powerful public persona. They had two lovely children from their marriage together.
They were also very friendly and successful and gregarious.

Speaker 21 So they seemed to have the perfect life.

Speaker 61 Good friends, a close-knit family.

Speaker 32 Not to mention that sprawling home on Shalomar Way.

Speaker 28 A house in the Caribbean, too.

Speaker 61 But Mary says Leslie didn't flaunt it.

Speaker 25 So she had the fancy house, but it might as well have been a shack?

Speaker 21 Yeah, she was totally unpretentious.

Speaker 21 Despite her social status, she was very able to relate to anyone on any, any level.

Speaker 41 Bob was well-liked, too.

Speaker 61 He'd built a successful medical practice, working hard to earn a reputation as one of the top OBGYNs in the area.

Speaker 27 He was definitely a very good doctor and he definitely delivered a lot of babies.

Speaker 48 Leslie's friend Terry is a labor and delivery nurse who worked for Bob for a couple of years.

Speaker 25 Was he really calm under pressure?

Speaker 27 Yes, he was. Very good in an emergency.

Speaker 69 Leslie had a career in medicine too.

Speaker 33 She was a nurse before giving it up to be a stay-at-home mom to Jenna and their younger son Ari.

Speaker 32 She also played stepmom to Bob's kids from his first marriage.

Speaker 27 Absolutely adored them and definitely made them the priority in her life.

Speaker 41 And the kids' deep affection for Leslie is clear on this tribute they made for her 60th birthday.

Speaker 3 Thank you for being you.

Speaker 50 I love you.

Speaker 41 The video was later posted on YouTube, where daughter Jenna and her stepsister joked about Leslie's unforgettable New York accent.

Speaker 71 She's like, How does everyone know I'm from New York? I don't understand.

Speaker 71 How does everyone know I'm from New York?

Speaker 50 Yeah, I don't know, mom. You You know,

Speaker 46 it was that accent that drew friend Nevin Roby to her.

Speaker 32 They met one day while waiting in line at Starbucks.

Speaker 72 She was probably four or five people in front of me. Loud, big hair, you know, Long Island accent.
You recognized it right away? Oh, immediately.

Speaker 72 I mean, you probably could have heard her a half block away easily.

Speaker 68 They immediately hit it off, like Leslie did with so many others in town.

Speaker 72 I used to joke with her. She should run for mayor of Syracuse.
Everyone here knows you. Everyone.

Speaker 48 Leslie and Bob were also known for their contributions to local charities.

Speaker 25 What was it about them that they wanted to give back?

Speaker 21 I think there's a certain amount of responsibility one feels when you live in a small community.

Speaker 70 A sense of responsibility that extended to their dearest friends, friends like Mary.

Speaker 55 She'd had a rough year, was hospitalized after complications from a serious fall.

Speaker 49 The Newlanders were right there to support her.

Speaker 21 The whole family came over to my house to welcome me back and all

Speaker 21 Bob, Leslie, Jenna, Ari were all there.

Speaker 28 You could have died.

Speaker 21 Yes, I was very close to death. She hugged me and kissed me and said,

Speaker 21 it's amazing to think that a little fall like that could cause you so much trouble. Wow.

Speaker 25 Now those are kind of prophetic words.

Speaker 21 Sad, really, yes.

Speaker 63 Leslie's fatal fall happened just two days after that visit.

Speaker 25 Did that seem odd to you that you had just gone through this life-changing event with a fall and now here your close friend has died from a fall?

Speaker 21 Well,

Speaker 21 I certainly ask the question that everyone asks. Why now? Why me? Why my friend? She's 60 years old.
She's very healthy. She's athletic.
She's strong.

Speaker 21 Well, quirky, weird things do happen.

Speaker 49 Mary had no idea at the time how much her friend's death would consume her or the role she would be asked to play to solve a mystery.

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Speaker 41 Leslie Newlander's death had been ruled an accident.

Speaker 64 For Jenna Newlander, an absolutely devastating loss.

Speaker 27 I think she really relied on her mom. I think her mother was her real rock.

Speaker 25 Did they have one of those mother-daughter relationships where they didn't talk about anything?

Speaker 27 Very much.

Speaker 45 Terry had rushed to the Newlander house as soon as she heard the news, arriving just as police were leaving.

Speaker 27 The family is in the living room, and everybody's obviously, you know, very upset and crying and hugging each other.

Speaker 25 What do you say when you walk into a situation like that?

Speaker 27 I'm really sorry.

Speaker 21 I'm just very sorry.

Speaker 51 She was there to support the family and happy to help later that evening when Jenna asked for a favor.

Speaker 27 She asked me if I would make sure that there wasn't blood on the floor in her mother's room before I left.

Speaker 37 Blood in her mother's room?

Speaker 45 Terry didn't understand.

Speaker 51 She thought Leslie had fallen in the shower.

Speaker 45 She pulled the Newlanders housekeeper aside.

Speaker 28 What did she say about the situation?

Speaker 27 She explained to me that the room had a lot of blood in it. and that they tried cleaning and can't couldn't get it all up.

Speaker 25 Did that strike you as odd at all?

Speaker 27 I thought it was very unusual because I didn't think that a closed head injury from a fall in the shower would have any blood.

Speaker 42 Terry, the trained nurse, decided to see for herself.

Speaker 48 She got a chill the minute she crossed the threshold.

Speaker 44 There was blood in the bedroom.

Speaker 37 Pools and pools of it.

Speaker 59 The housekeeper was also perplexed.

Speaker 27 She said, this just doesn't make sense. This just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 67 Together, they got down on their hands and knees and tried to clean up the blood.

Speaker 40 But there was just too much of it, and it was soaked deep into the carpet.

Speaker 25 I can only imagine that must have been awful.

Speaker 27 It was absolutely awful. It was absolutely awful.

Speaker 69 All the while, a disturbing thought was taking root.

Speaker 37 One Terry dared not say out loud.

Speaker 74 Where does your mind go from there?

Speaker 27 To the obvious, I think. That Leslie's been killed.

Speaker 27 You have to assume that when things don't make sense.

Speaker 68 Terry didn't know that the medical examiner had already investigated at the scene and ruled the death an accident, or that Bob had given an explanation for all that blood, saying he moved the body.

Speaker 78 Her mind raced as she went back downstairs to comfort the family.

Speaker 27 I think I just blocked it. I just blocked it.

Speaker 25 Were you being a little bit of an actress in a way that

Speaker 25 I have to be something I'm not right now. I have to feel something or express something that I'm not feeling.

Speaker 2 Absolutely.

Speaker 28 Terry had to keep a straight face because she says Leslie's family seemed so certain about what happened.

Speaker 45 That included daughter Jenna, who'd been in the room that morning.

Speaker 28 It was just a fall in the shower.

Speaker 74 Yep.

Speaker 25 My mom died in an accident. Yep.

Speaker 27 And it was left at that.

Speaker 51 That's what Jenna told police when she gave them a formal statement about the accident. She was like, Mom, mom, she's on the ground.

Speaker 51 She's in the shower. She's on the ground.
And he had

Speaker 51 her robe over her, and he was screaming that she's getting really cold. She's getting really cold.

Speaker 51 And

Speaker 51 I think he was grabbing for the blanket

Speaker 51 to cover her.

Speaker 51 I think he said like, is someone coming to help us?

Speaker 51 And like, oh my god, it felt like hours.

Speaker 63 The tragic accident was big news in Syracuse.

Speaker 46 Megan Coleman is an anchor at NBC affiliate WSTM.

Speaker 41 She says everyone was as shocked by the circumstances as they were sympathetic to Dr.

Speaker 62 Newlander.

Speaker 20 Tens of thousands of people have a connection to this man. He had been at the bedside when all of these women were bringing their children into the world.
People loved him.

Speaker 40 Not only did Megan report on the Newlander story, but like so many in this town, she also knew the doctor personally.

Speaker 41 A few months before Leslie died, he took part in a ceremony for Megan's newborn son. Leslie was there too.

Speaker 21 They were warm, they were engaging.

Speaker 20 She had this beautiful smile. No one would ever have thought that, you know, anything like this could happen to her.
And I think generally, everyone was just stunned.

Speaker 41 During Shiva, the Jewish mourning period, friends and family came in droves to support Bob. Mary Jimbelek was still bedridden after her own fall, so her husband went alone.

Speaker 21 So he went over to visit and to represent our family, to talk to the family.

Speaker 25 How is Bob coping?

Speaker 21 Withdrawn, really.

Speaker 25 It's almost like losing your compass.

Speaker 21 Yes.

Speaker 27 There was people, you know, every day at the house, bringing food and staying for several hours.

Speaker 27 By the end of the evening, Bob was very annoyed by having people still in his house, and he was glad to see it end.

Speaker 33 Terry visited the Newlanders frequently that first week.

Speaker 37 She says she was even at the house when Bob got a phone call letting him know that Leslie's death was officially being filed as an accident.

Speaker 27 And I thought, well, then this is a closed case.

Speaker 25 And everybody's accepting it.

Speaker 27 Seems to be.

Speaker 51 But Terry couldn't let it go.

Speaker 35 Not for her friend, Leslie.

Speaker 28 Did you ever feel like a little bit of a detective or something that you were.

Speaker 21 I did. I felt like there people

Speaker 1 aren't putting the pieces to this puzzle together.

Speaker 27 And somebody needs to do that.

Speaker 19 Coming up.

Speaker 27 Where do you go and what do you do?

Speaker 19 Haunted by doubt, Terry reaches out.

Speaker 21 I said you should go to the police.

Speaker 75 Did you feel like by going to the police, this will put an end to it?

Speaker 21 Yes, I did.

Speaker 40 A month had passed since the heartbreaking death of Leslie Newlander.

Speaker 45 That's just about when the friend she'd met at Starbucks, Nevin Ruby, learned she was gone.

Speaker 28 They'd been close, but ran in different circles, had different friends.

Speaker 46 No one knew to call him about the funeral.

Speaker 21 It was like a Monday.

Speaker 72 And I just remember I just woke up an hour before my alarm, and I just went over to my computer, and I just typed her first and last name in, and there was her obituary.

Speaker 21 And I was like, in shock.

Speaker 25 What was it that was making you feel that you

Speaker 56 something was happening, that you needed to search that data?

Speaker 72 I don't know. And I just like stared at the computer screen and I was like, this can't be real.

Speaker 28 Terry had been in shock at first, too.

Speaker 67 But now that had been replaced by a deep sense of unease.

Speaker 48 To her, the fall in the shower story just didn't add up.

Speaker 27 You're just kind of waiting for your phone to ring and somebody else to call and say, I think what you think and what do you think happened? But weeks turn into months and nobody's doing that.

Speaker 47 Terry helped Leslie's sister clear some of Leslie's things out of the house.

Speaker 28 Did she have any thoughts on what had happened?

Speaker 27 She never discussed it.

Speaker 25 And you didn't feel comfortable bringing up

Speaker 27 your suspicions? Nope. I just assumed she would bring it up to me.

Speaker 45 It all left Terry in a very lonely place.

Speaker 25 Did that weigh on you, that feeling of maybe it's not my business?

Speaker 27 No, it never weighed on me, it's not my business. It weighed on me, why aren't people doing anything?

Speaker 27 You know, and there was some certainly hesitancy because you don't want to be the person that's out there being judged by the whole community. Like, why are you going against them?

Speaker 27 That's not a good position to be in for anybody.

Speaker 25 Are you just every day waking up and this is like

Speaker 25 on your brain?

Speaker 27 Morning, noon, and night.

Speaker 27 And that's what I struggled with for a very long time. Where do you go and what do you do?

Speaker 76 She reached out to her priest for advice.

Speaker 28 He suggested she call the police.

Speaker 46 But Terry believed the case was closed.

Speaker 51 Then she decided to try someone else.

Speaker 27 I thought that she would be the perfect person to ask.

Speaker 51 A year earlier, Terry had gone to a book club meeting at Leslie's house.

Speaker 43 The plot of the book involved a coroner.

Speaker 27 I believe it was a story that took place in England. It was definitely an interesting book.

Speaker 37 And it just so happened that there was a real-life medical examiner in the club, an expert on death.

Speaker 27 And I remember Mary saying, you know, if you ever have questions about things that you're wondering, you can always ask me.

Speaker 46 Mary is the Mary you know, Mary Jumbelek.

Speaker 45 She's not just a friend of Leslie's, but also a doctor, the retired chief medical examiner for Onondaga County, where the Newlanders lived.

Speaker 21 Did you think about that book after Leslie died?

Speaker 27 I only thought about it because of Mary, yes. I thought about Mary could explain this.

Speaker 74 The whole situation with Leslie's.

Speaker 26 Yes.

Speaker 35 Terry picked up the phone.

Speaker 25 Was that a hard call to make even to Mary?

Speaker 25 It finally opening up about these feelings you're having.

Speaker 21 It was.

Speaker 27 It was tough. It definitely was tough.

Speaker 25 But it must have been nagging at you so hard that you just had to?

Speaker 27 Yes, I think that that's how I felt. Like, nobody's doing anything for Leslie.
And am I going to just sit back and let this happen?

Speaker 27 Or is there somebody that can help me understand this and know what the right thing to do is?

Speaker 48 To say Mary was skeptical would be an understatement.

Speaker 47 20 plus years of criminal justice experience told her Terry was probably way off base.

Speaker 21 I had faith in the system and I knew there had to have been some investigation concerning the death and if there was anything, then it would have come out.

Speaker 21 There would have been some news about it and there had been nothing. I thought, I'm not sure why you're worried about this right now.

Speaker 28 I would imagine most people would say, come on, it's Bob. She fell in the shower.
Leave it alone.

Speaker 21 Right. And that's pretty much what I said.

Speaker 40 Plus, she knew from her own recent fall just how easily accidents can happen.

Speaker 21 Happened to me, I fell. Who would have thought I would get so sick? It's very, very sad, but things do happen.

Speaker 59 Still, her training told her it was important to hear Terry out.

Speaker 21 When I was a medical examiner, I would have family members coming in to tell me about what they thought about the circumstances of the death. And I always took those visits very seriously.

Speaker 21 You have to consider what someone's saying, whether or not they understand what they're saying, or whether or not they have the forensic detail.

Speaker 32 So Mary listened intently as Terry described the blood she saw in the bedroom.

Speaker 69 In the end, Mary didn't feel alarmed at all.

Speaker 21 Nothing struck me that I needed to make someone aware of these concerns.

Speaker 27 I thought maybe she was right, you know, and maybe I am jumping to the wrong conclusion.

Speaker 76 Still, given how disturbed Terry seemed to be, Mary offered her a suggestion.

Speaker 21 I said you should go to the police and make statements.

Speaker 21 If you have all of these concerns, you really need to just tell someone officially what your concerns are because telling me in this informal manner is,

Speaker 21 I don't think you're going to get past it.

Speaker 75 Did you feel like by going to the police, this will put an end to it? Yes. And we can clear the air and move on.

Speaker 21 Yes, I did.

Speaker 19 Coming up.

Speaker 22 Two days after her death, an investigator received an anonymous letter regarding this case.

Speaker 51 What is in the letter?

Speaker 22 Some information about their personal life.

Speaker 19 Did this letter writer have secrets to reveal?

Speaker 25 Is your detective sense starting starting to tingle a little bit?

Speaker 19 Well, yeah, it is. When dateline continues.

Speaker 48 In the weeks after Leslie Newlander's death, Terry Barr found herself increasingly angry.

Speaker 69 Her friend Leslie was too lively, too young to be gone.

Speaker 21 I felt rabbed.

Speaker 25 What did you think about

Speaker 2 as far as what you were going to miss out on with your friend?

Speaker 66 Just being able to run things by her.

Speaker 25 Not being able to pick up the phone and call your friend. Sure, definitely.
To talk about all the things you both.

Speaker 25 There was no goodbye.

Speaker 21 Right.

Speaker 27 And I think there's no goodbye in a very tragic way.

Speaker 79 And she wasn't upset just for herself, but for Leslie too.

Speaker 41 All those sunset milestones her friend would never get to experience.

Speaker 27 Seeing Jana get married and seeing her kids grow up and have their own families, I think that was huge.

Speaker 47 Definitely, she was looking forward to those times.

Speaker 49 Her friend Mary, the trained medical examiner, had dismissed Terry's suspicions.

Speaker 41 But Terry was medically trained herself.

Speaker 80 And as Bob's nurse, who'd worked alongside him for years, something nagged at her.

Speaker 33 Bob's decision to move Leslie to the bedroom for CPR.

Speaker 27 Bob was very good in an emergency, and it is instinct, family or not,

Speaker 27 to kick into

Speaker 27 saving mode and we all know not to move a body.

Speaker 68 Terry felt certain that Bob was hiding something and though she tried not to think about it, she began to fear that something sinister had happened, that maybe Dr.

Speaker 45 Newlander had killed his wife.

Speaker 27 I was just crushed for her. I was, you know, I was just very crushed that you think you can, you know, trust somebody and

Speaker 21 they're not who you think they are.

Speaker 27 And how awful that must have been for her.

Speaker 43 But with the community rallying around the doctor, Terry mostly kept those thoughts to herself.

Speaker 25 Did friends and family see Bob as the grieving husband?

Speaker 27 Yes, they definitely did.

Speaker 21 I think definitely he had a lot of support.

Speaker 28 A few months after Leslie's death, Terry still hadn't taken the advice to go speak to the police.

Speaker 57 Then she found herself unexpectedly face to face with an officer.

Speaker 27 It just happened coincidentally that a police officer came into an office that I was working in, and I asked him a couple questions, and he said, I think you need to, you know, have a conversation with my partner.

Speaker 25 Was your biggest fear that the family would find out you went to the police?

Speaker 27 Very uncomfortable. That would be very uncomfortable.

Speaker 27 Yes.

Speaker 57 To avoid being seen at the police station, Terry arranged for a detective to come to her house.

Speaker 66 His name is Scott Caprell.

Speaker 28 He's the detective who was at the scene that morning with Sergeant Norton, the responding officer.

Speaker 22 I personally have seen a lot of wounds over the 22 years of my career from falls and not from falls, and I've never seen a wound that bad.

Speaker 66 But like the sergeant, he deferred to the medical examiner.

Speaker 22 We're dealing with different experts in the field, and he is an expert, and we respect him.

Speaker 25 And I guess every fall is different.

Speaker 22 That's right.

Speaker 2 Terry told the detective how tortured she'd been over over Leslie's death.

Speaker 27 I said to Scott, my life is living dateline. That's what I feel like I'm living.

Speaker 27 And this needs to, you know,

Speaker 27 come to a conclusion.

Speaker 41 The detective couldn't share details with Terry, but it turns out the case was not completely closed. And despite all the public support and sympathy for Dr.

Speaker 2 Newlander, She wasn't the first person to express doubts about what had happened to Leslie.

Speaker 22 We started to hear some,

Speaker 22 just some comments coming in from the community. Nothing that we went out and solicited, but it was via other police officers that may have seen someone else.

Speaker 33 The DA's office had also received a letter.

Speaker 22 Two days after her death, we're contacted by an investigator from the district attorney's office who advises us that they received an anonymous letter regarding this case.

Speaker 25 What is in the letter and what does it mean for the case?

Speaker 22 The letter basically outlined some information about their personal life, enough

Speaker 22 that we were clear that whoever wrote the anonymous letter felt that we should continue looking at it.

Speaker 61 According to the letter, this wealthy power couple was having financial problems.

Speaker 41 Police wanted to speak with whoever wrote it.

Speaker 33 Were there any clues in the letter?

Speaker 25 Did it sound like it was maybe from a family friend, a relative?

Speaker 22 Obviously, the letter was written by someone that had some sort of

Speaker 22 knowledge of their life. It's obviously something someone didn't make up.

Speaker 46 Try as they might, they couldn't figure out who wrote the letter.

Speaker 57 But now the detective was sitting across from someone who knew the Newlanders well.

Speaker 37 Terry confirmed that despite the beautiful home, Bob and Leslie had taken a big financial hit.

Speaker 61 A billing dispute had caused the area's largest health insurer to drop Bob's medical practice.

Speaker 45 Terry, who was working for him at the time, saw the storm coming.

Speaker 27 I said, you know, if you lose your Blue Cross and Blue Shield patients, that's a third of our practice, and that means layoffs. So he said that I was the only person that had perceived that.

Speaker 27 And that's just what happened.

Speaker 69 Dr.

Speaker 48 Newlander had to let Terry and several others go.

Speaker 27 I think he genuinely felt bad and hoped that things would change. You know, and I did come back briefly.

Speaker 27 There was an influx of some new patients, and so he did call me and ask me to come back briefly. And I did, and then I was again laid off.

Speaker 28 Was that kind of the beginning of the end for his practice?

Speaker 27 Yes, definitely.

Speaker 41 One of the patients who left his practice during the insurance dispute was the wife of responding officer Sergeant Norton.

Speaker 52 When he lost his contract with Blue Cross Blue Shields, she was forced to find a different physician.

Speaker 25 Was she kind of disappointed about that?

Speaker 52 Yes, she was very disappointed.

Speaker 51 She liked going to him?

Speaker 52 Yes, she thought that he was a good physician.

Speaker 41 So the New Landers had money trouble.

Speaker 25 Is your detective sense starting to tingle a little bit that...

Speaker 22 Well, yeah,

Speaker 22 it is.

Speaker 22 But again, we follow protocol.

Speaker 67 And according to the ME, Leslie's death was an accident.

Speaker 22 He is the expert in his field, and we rely on him. If he explains to us that this is the situation that it looks like to him, then we have to go with that.

Speaker 41 If only there was someone else in town who could offer a second opinion, perhaps it was time to consult a certain retired medical examiner.

Speaker 19 Coming up.

Speaker 42 You probably didn't want to believe that this wasn't an accident.

Speaker 21 I didn't. I didn't want to believe that.

Speaker 19 A new look at Leslie's final moments.

Speaker 25 Did you feel like Leslie was talking to you from the grave?

Speaker 21 Yes, she's telling me what happened.

Speaker 81 Hey, this is Will Arnett, host of Smartless. Smartless is a podcast with myself and Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman, where each week one of us reveals a mystery guest to the other two.

Speaker 81 We dive deep with guests that you love, like Bill Hayter, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Kristen Stewart, and tons more.

Speaker 81 So join us for a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the smartless mind. Listen to Smartless Now on the SiriusXM app.
Download it today.

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Speaker 28 Leslie's friend Terry had suspicions about Bob Newlander, and now that she'd spoken with police, she was doing her best to avoid him around town.

Speaker 51 She had a close call when they nearly bumped shopping carts at the supermarket.

Speaker 25 Did you just make a beeline in the other direction?

Speaker 47 Absolutely.

Speaker 27 Like, why does a man who's never shopped a day in his life or cooked a meal in his life show up at Wegman's at noon when everybody else is there?

Speaker 60 Terry thought Bob was making an effort to appear as though everything was normal.

Speaker 61 Then one day, about three months after Leslie's death, Terry's phone rang.

Speaker 54 It was Bob.

Speaker 27 I was quite surprised. What did he want? He just said he was reaching out to friends and catching up with people.

Speaker 27 Since Leslie died, he's been so distraught and just wanted to see what people were up to. I thought it was very unusual.
He'd never called me before.

Speaker 25 Did you again have to go into actress mode and pretend like everything was okay?

Speaker 27 Absolutely, I did.

Speaker 68 How hard was that?

Speaker 27 It's very hard because you're just trying to be yourself and you're not used to being in that role.

Speaker 69 Mary Jambelet got a catch-up phone call too, but unlike Terry, Mary welcomed the call.

Speaker 71 She and her husband hadn't heard from Bob since that night of mourning at his house.

Speaker 21 My husband and he chatted. I didn't get on the phone.
Sorry, I haven't called. I've been out of touch.
I'm going to go visit my daughter who was studying in Israel.

Speaker 21 You know, just a casual, light conversation.

Speaker 46 Mary knew all about Terry's suspicions about Bob, but she thought maybe Terry had been watching too many crime shows.

Speaker 21 Well, it is true that my field has gotten very popularized in the media, and so everyone thinks they have a little piece of it, and they are their own investigators.

Speaker 42 You probably didn't want to believe that this wasn't an accident.

Speaker 21 I didn't. I didn't want to believe that.

Speaker 61 But now, after this phone call, Mary found herself wondering for the first time.

Speaker 25 Was there something specific he said on that call that bothered you?

Speaker 21 I think it was just his

Speaker 21 tone.

Speaker 74 What was with his tone?

Speaker 21 I'm sorry I've been out of touch. I'm gonna be out of touch again.
I'm leaving, but I just wanna call you and say hi.

Speaker 2 It felt odd.

Speaker 28 This business of leaving the country troubled her too. Off to Israel to see Jenna.

Speaker 42 Why did that concern you?

Speaker 21 Well, if it happened that this wasn't simply an accident, then that would raise concern.

Speaker 25 That he could just be gone?

Speaker 56 Right.

Speaker 25 And maybe never return?

Speaker 21 Right.

Speaker 25 Was something nagging at you at this point?

Speaker 21 It was. I don't know.
I had nothing other than the friend's concerns. I just thought I just need to have a conversation with Bill Fitzpatrick.

Speaker 41 Bill Fitzpatrick is the Onondaga County District Attorney and a colleague of Mary's until she retired as medical examiner a few years earlier.

Speaker 21 I thought I should just close the loop with the information and just call call the district attorney.

Speaker 51 What is she telling you?

Speaker 19 She said, you know, look, I just saw them. They came to see me with the family.
That's how close they were. And she says, look,

Speaker 19 I just want to put the rumors to bed. People are talking, they're gossiping.

Speaker 21 What was his response? His response was, would you take a look at the case?

Speaker 25 Did that surprise you? Yes. You're friends with the victim

Speaker 74 and her husband. Yes.

Speaker 25 Did that feel odd at all?

Speaker 21 Of course it did. It took me a moment to answer the question.
I had to think if I should or could or would

Speaker 33 do this.

Speaker 21 And I thought, well, yes, I do know them both, but if there is a way to answer this, if there is a way to allay these concerns, then perhaps I'm the best person to do that.

Speaker 19 I have a lot of respect for Mary. We worked together for 10 years.

Speaker 48 The files were brought to Mary's home for her review.

Speaker 33 I'm sure you just dove right in.

Speaker 21 Well, there's a process. You look at everything, you consider the scene, you consider the autopsy findings, you look at the statements, you weigh it all in and come to a scientific conclusion.

Speaker 61 Mary could see how the medical examiner drew his conclusions that Leslie's death was a slip and fall.

Speaker 21 He saw some findings in the brain that he attributed to a fall, and he latched onto that finding and felt that that explained her story

Speaker 21 as portrayed by Bob.

Speaker 33 Mary took it all in.

Speaker 69 The crime scene photos, the ME's report.

Speaker 46 She absorbed every detail as she immersed herself in the final moments of her dear friend's life.

Speaker 25 Did you feel like Leslie was talking to you from the grave as you're looking at this report?

Speaker 21 Yes, she's telling me what happened, yes.

Speaker 47 And what Leslie was telling her was devastating.

Speaker 41 Like Leslie's injuries, there were more than just that gash on her head.

Speaker 21 She had a large five-inch wound on the side of her scalp, with injuries on multiple sides of her face. It was a pattern of the injuries that's not explained by the story.

Speaker 21 So in forensic parlance, that's a red flag.

Speaker 47 Mary was also alarmed by the crime scene photos, which showed blood in Leslie's bedroom.

Speaker 69 It wasn't just pools in the carpet.

Speaker 47 There was blood spatter at Leslie's bedside, on her lamp, the water bottles, even up on the wall.

Speaker 25 There were a lot of things that weren't adding up for you.

Speaker 21 There were very significant things, yes.

Speaker 28 She was about to make a phone call that would change the course of the investigation.

Speaker 19 Coming up, another friend of Leslie steps forward with a surprising revelation.

Speaker 72 She told me that they were going to get a divorce. She was looking for a new place, and she was very excited.

Speaker 19 When dateline continues.

Speaker 33 Mary Jambelek, the retired ME, had looked at the entire case file about her friend Leslie's death and had come to a startling conclusion.

Speaker 21 Leslie was murdered. She died as a result of blunt head trauma, and the manner was homicide.

Speaker 25 Science aside, though, this is your friend.

Speaker 39 Yes.

Speaker 21 It was upsetting, and I knew it could only get more upsetting because the professional side of me came to a conclusion that I supported scientifically, but that didn't make it easy, and it didn't make it better.

Speaker 21 But I never could be concerned for that because I speak for the dead person. That's what I did my whole life.
So they're my patient, they're who I take care of, and they're who I speak for.

Speaker 21 If it hurts the living,

Speaker 21 So be it.

Speaker 25 Your part in all this almost reads like a novel.

Speaker 21 Well,

Speaker 21 it's not fiction, and truth is often stranger and more painful than fiction could ever be.

Speaker 41 She immediately called D.A.

Speaker 66 Fitzpatrick.

Speaker 19 She says to me, this is a homicide.

Speaker 19 And I was stunned.

Speaker 48 Now, of course, D.A.

Speaker 28 Bill Fitzpatrick had two conflicting professional opinions to contend with.

Speaker 41 Mary's and the current Emmys who'd ruled Leslie's manner of death an accident.

Speaker 39 You need to now go talk to him and say, I think you're you're wrong.

Speaker 19 Yeah, they said.

Speaker 19 I'm not asking you to re-examine your opinion as to the cause of death. I'm just asking you to reconsider manner of death.

Speaker 65 Fitzpatrick arranged a meeting, inviting the current Emmy, as well as a group of other prominent pathologists to review and discuss the case.

Speaker 33 And the opinions of those other pathologists matched Mary's.

Speaker 55 It looked like a homicide.

Speaker 21 It would have been wonderful if I had been wrong.

Speaker 21 I wish I had been wrong.

Speaker 65 But the Onondaga County medical examiner had the final say, and he held fast.

Speaker 41 Leslie's official manner of death remained an accident.

Speaker 19 The puck stops with me. Ultimately, the medical examiner can call it whatever he or she wants.
It's my decision whether or not to go forward with a homicide investigation.

Speaker 33 And that's where the case was heading.

Speaker 37 Before long, word was out around Syracuse.

Speaker 59 Dr.

Speaker 41 Bob Newlander was under investigation for his wife's death.

Speaker 20 Tom Eschen joins us live from outside the doctor's Hanover Square apartment now.

Speaker 46 Anchor Megan Coleman says few could believe it.

Speaker 20 This was the biggest stunner that we had seen in a very long time in this community.

Speaker 20 And for me personally, because they had been in my home, what, four months before she had died, I thought, this can't be happening. He seemed just like any other dad, any other

Speaker 20 husband.

Speaker 31 Dr.

Speaker 37 Newlander's family was in his corner, and he was fighting back in the press through his attorney.

Speaker 83 This has been an open open secret and a subject of gossip and irresponsible rumor now for months. Dr.
Newlander has not been charged with any kind of offense.

Speaker 20 He spoke out and was adamant. These are ludicrous allegations.
This is outrageous. He is the most honest person I've ever met.

Speaker 51 For detectives, a benefit of the coverage was that it encouraged anyone with information to come forward.

Speaker 72 You know, sometimes you got to be brave enough to get involved, even if it's a bad bad situation.

Speaker 57 Someone who did was Leslie's friend from Starbucks, Nevin Robey.

Speaker 72 It really wasn't until I read a news story where it got changed from this to an actual investigation.

Speaker 72 And that's when, you know, I did, you know, go to the police and sit and talk with them.

Speaker 32 He walked detectives through a story from the beginning, how he'd met Leslie by chance earlier that year.

Speaker 60 Although they were years apart in age, the two became fast friends.

Speaker 72 Maybe twice, three times a week, you you know, we'd have like lunch because I'd be working. She'd be like, hey, I'm stopping in the mall.

Speaker 32 Nevin says their conversations were light at first.

Speaker 69 Things going on in town, the latest news.

Speaker 31 But over time, they grew more personal.

Speaker 41 He says the fact that they were strangers in each other's lives made it feel safe.

Speaker 72 I could ask her things about things that are going on in my life, that I'm going to get a real 100% response and I don't have to feel worried about it and vice versa. Who am I?

Speaker 72 I'm a nobody, really, in her world. And same thing with her.

Speaker 25 It was easy for her to open up to you.

Speaker 72 Absolutely. There's no judgment.
And that was really, I think, for both of us, really. It was very, you know, it was nice to have that.

Speaker 41 Nevin told investigators Leslie's husband wasn't a regular topic of conversation, but he got the impression that their marriage was not a happy one.

Speaker 25 What were the positive things she had to say about Bob?

Speaker 72 She never said really anything positive about Bob. The conversations about her and her marriage were always like little crumbs.

Speaker 31 But Nevin says there was something specific in all those crumbs, though Leslie didn't dwell on it.

Speaker 72 It sounded like he had been cheating on her throughout the marriage.

Speaker 57 Because they didn't talk much about Bob, Nevin was surprised when, after knowing each other for just a few months, Leslie's husband sent him a text.

Speaker 72 Who are you, you know, and what are you guys talking about? You know, what are you guys doing and stuff like that? And I just responded very simply. I was like, we're having lunch.
She's my friend.

Speaker 72 We're talking about things, life, my life, her life, what's going on in her world. I mean, it's.

Speaker 74 Did he get hostile at all?

Speaker 72 He only got hostile at the end. My wife and I are having like marital issues and stuff like that.
And I'm glad you're her friend but you know please stay out of the our marriage stuff.

Speaker 45 Nevin told police he isn't sure if Leslie told Bob about their friendship or if Bob had snooped in her phone.

Speaker 41 Either way, he insists they were never more than friends.

Speaker 25 Do you think though from the husband's perspective that he could have perceived it as something more potential?

Speaker 72 I think anyone can perceive anything on

Speaker 28 any topic, really.

Speaker 25 So she never said to you, oh, Bob knows about us and well there's nothing to know about us really.

Speaker 72 You know what I mean?

Speaker 39 She's just friends.

Speaker 72 Yeah, I mean, she has a hundred-something million friends in Sarah.

Speaker 25 I mean, my husband, if I'm having lunches with a guy who's a lot younger,

Speaker 51 he'd want to know about it.

Speaker 22 It's true, but I'm no Brad Pitt.

Speaker 25 You're an attractive guy. Again, much younger guy.

Speaker 28 I would think that Bob would want to know that you're in his wife's world.

Speaker 21 Right.

Speaker 72 Again, you'd have to ask Bob. I have no idea what he does or does not know.

Speaker 41 Even after Bob had texted him, telling him to stay out of their marriage.

Speaker 73 Nevin says Leslie met him for another lunch.

Speaker 79 And she shared some news.

Speaker 37 She and Bob were splitting up.

Speaker 66 It was just days before Leslie died.

Speaker 72 She told me that they both sat down and told all the kids, the whole family, they were going to get a divorce. She was looking for a new place.

Speaker 72 The last conversation, she said she put down a deposit but was waiting for like a credit check or something to this effect. And she was very excited.

Speaker 33 It was a tantalizing piece of information for the detectives.

Speaker 22 We had had multiple acquaintances and friends and close friends of hers explain to us that she was most certainly ready to move on and divorce.

Speaker 31 One of those friends was Terry.

Speaker 39 She didn't know much about it, but it was another one of the many things that made her suspicious about Bob from the start.

Speaker 27 She told me that they were separating and that

Speaker 27 we were going to meet for coffee and talk later in the upcoming week.

Speaker 47 Was this a total surprise to you?

Speaker 27 Yeah, it was a surprise to me. I just asked her if you're are you okay? And she said yes, it's fine, Terry.
It's okay, and I'll fill you in. Let's wait until Tuesday and we'll get together Tuesday.

Speaker 64 But Terry never learned more about it because by Tuesday, Leslie was dead.

Speaker 33 For the detectives, the suggestive stories about Bob were adding up, but they weren't hard evidence.

Speaker 68 Investigators had just been given a look inside the Newlanders' marriage.

Speaker 28 Now they needed another look inside the house.

Speaker 19 Coming up.

Speaker 21 It was strange.

Speaker 52 It looked like the shower hadn't been touched from that day.

Speaker 19 A return to the scene yields stunning new evidence.

Speaker 52 I'm staring at this headboard and I shined my flashlight on it and I'm like, you're not going to believe this.

Speaker 81 Hey, this is Will Arnett, host of Smartless. Smartless is a podcast with myself and Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman, where each week one of us reveals a mystery guest to the other two.

Speaker 81 We dive deep with guests that you love, like Bill Hayter, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Aniston, David Beckham, Kristen Stewart, and tons more.

Speaker 81 So join us for a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the smartless mind. Listen to Smartless Now on the Sirius XM app.

Speaker 81 Download it today.

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Speaker 84 Dr.

Speaker 76 Bob Newlander may have been under investigation for his wife's death, but he wasn't acting like it.

Speaker 2 He was out and about, grocery shopping, eating at restaurants, going to temple with his family.

Speaker 48 Megan Coleman went to the same synagogue.

Speaker 20 And I remember sitting several rows back from him and, you know, sort of had the corner of my eye, you know, sort of watch. I mean, you know, this is Yom Kippur, it's the Day of Atonement.

Speaker 20 And so, you know, you sort of think that perhaps this day may take on a little bit more meaning for him.

Speaker 20 So I was sort of watching and wondering, will there be any sort of reaction or visible something, you know, that I could kind of glean from watching him.

Speaker 67 Megan says many in the community still felt sorry for the widower.

Speaker 35 It was hard to imagine that Bob would have anything to do with his wife's death.

Speaker 20 I think that that was also part of what made it so difficult for people to wrap their head around what was going on because they were so giving and they were so loving.

Speaker 61 As months passed without an arrest, Leslie's friend Terry wondered why the case didn't seem to be going anywhere.

Speaker 27 You just feel like it's going to go on for years, like it does in other cases, and this just is maybe never going to get solved for a long time.

Speaker 41 But behind the scenes, investigators were still working.

Speaker 60 Something high on their to-do list?

Speaker 51 Return to the mansion on Shalimar Way.

Speaker 25 I would imagine there were probably things you wanted to look at that you couldn't the first time because

Speaker 28 you had to essentially shut it down once the death was ruled an accident.

Speaker 22 Right, that's right.

Speaker 48 It seemed like a long shot that they would find anything significant.

Speaker 80 Many months had passed and the house had been sold.

Speaker 45 But still, detectives reached out to the new owner.

Speaker 22 They hadn't moved in. He hadn't touched anything in the house.
And he said, if you need to come back, you're welcome to come on back in and take a look.

Speaker 22 And so, you know, obviously, we certainly are never going to pass up an offer to do that.

Speaker 62 And they were about to get unbelievably lucky because not only had the new owner not yet moved in, but it appeared the Newlanders had hardly touched the bedroom since the day Leslie died.

Speaker 52 You could tell that they tried to clean the blood out of the carpeting, but you could still see the outlines. You could still see the stains.

Speaker 52 It looked like the shower hadn't been touched from that day. I mean, there was still,

Speaker 52 we were finding dried blood in the shower. And here it is, March.

Speaker 28 Creepy.

Speaker 21 It was just, it was strange.

Speaker 52 I mean, that it was never cleaned. That the actual shower was never cleaned.

Speaker 65 The evidence text took measurements and carpet samples and recorded blood spatter on the blinds.

Speaker 80 At one point, the sergeant found himself staring at the built-in bed frame.

Speaker 33 The mattress was gone, but the headboard was still there.

Speaker 52 I'm staring at this headboard to this bed. It was like a black felt fabric with a pattern in it.

Speaker 52 And I don't know if it was the light just caught it the right way or what drew my attention to it, but now I see a stain in the headboard.

Speaker 52 I had a flashlight and I shined my flashlight on it and it was a red stain in this black fabric. I just remember calling out to Scott Carpo.
I'm like, you're not going to believe this.

Speaker 45 The stain was blood.

Speaker 44 They'd all missed it the day Leslie died.

Speaker 52 It was covered up by pillows the day that we were there, so I never really got to see that.

Speaker 22 Once we identified that it was Leslie's blood,

Speaker 22 that was enormous. To us, it certainly did not fit any explanation that, you know, he brought her out to the floor right next to the bed

Speaker 22 to do CPR.

Speaker 25 And he told you I placed her on the bed at any point to do

Speaker 25 CPR?

Speaker 22 Not at all.

Speaker 47 Bob had talked to investigators at the scene and later given a written statement to police.

Speaker 28 He declined a formal interview. But Jenna had given that videotaped interview.

Speaker 41 Maybe she saw something that would explain the newly discovered blood.

Speaker 45 They pulled it to review.

Speaker 85 When you first saw her, she was already on the ground in the middle. Yeah, dad was holding her

Speaker 85 underneath her arm.

Speaker 85 He was trying to get her out of the bathroom.

Speaker 36 Jenna had described how, after calling 911, she ran to the bathroom and saw her dad carrying her mother from the shower.

Speaker 36 She was already out of the shower, and she was in that hallway where that step was, and he was trying to get her onto the carpet. He had already taken her out of the shower and he was moving her.

Speaker 36 Down the hallway?

Speaker 36 Yeah, into the into the carpet area. And dad started working on her and

Speaker 36 looking for her vital. What do you mean working on her? Like he was checking her hall.

Speaker 36 Did you actually see him do chest compressions?

Speaker 36 I don't remember. I just wanted to start seeing that she was breathing.
I just remember touching her like back

Speaker 36 and her jaw was really

Speaker 36 fair.

Speaker 36 I started screaming, but she said,

Speaker 41 And that's when she noticed the blood.

Speaker 85 Where did you see the blood? There was blood. Then I looked.
There was blood where her head was.

Speaker 85 here a little bit around and there was blood

Speaker 85 where

Speaker 85 um like on the walls

Speaker 35 jenna says she ran to another room to grab her cell phone to call 911 again and when i went back upstairs

Speaker 35 she was here

Speaker 85 so bad her head here so by the time you got done calling 911 again your mother had been moved from here to here you you you didn't help with that or anything she your dad had fit it okay

Speaker 41 Jenna confirmed she saw her mother moved at least twice, but never mentioned seeing her on the bed.

Speaker 51 So nothing she described seemed to explain the blood they just found on the headboard.

Speaker 41 The DA thought it was time to finally talk to Bob Newlander himself.

Speaker 19 His attorney and I are having conversations. I said, will he come in and be interviewed? Sure, absolutely.

Speaker 19 Coming up, a crucial question for Bob Newlander.

Speaker 50 On the headboard, there are at least nine blood spatters on your wife.

Speaker 50 And blood spatter on the ceiling. ceiling fall down the floor i may ask

Speaker 50 do you have any explanation for that

Speaker 19 when dateline continues

Speaker 55 More than a year had passed since Leslie's death.

Speaker 50 Doctors, don't worry, I'm going to voyager.

Speaker 54 And now Bob Newlander was sitting down with D.A.

Speaker 51 Bill Fitzpatrick for a videotaped interview.

Speaker 19 His attorney knows that I'm leaning towards that your client murdered his wife. I said, Ed, there's this blood.
It's just so inconsistent. He can explain that.

Speaker 28 And so Fitzpatrick asked him to start at the beginning.

Speaker 19 I just asked him, tell me what you did that day. I want to be as thorough and meticulous as possible.

Speaker 50 Do you remember on the 17th, about what time did it visit you woke up?

Speaker 50 Somewhere between 6 and 6.30. I decided to go for a run, which I normally do, 7.30.
I

Speaker 50 go pick up the newspaper

Speaker 50 and then I put up coffee because I bring a cup of coffee to Leslie every morning.

Speaker 50 Tell us what happens when you go into her bedroom.

Speaker 50 The shower is on, I hear the water running, and I place it.

Speaker 50 I'd stand next to the people where she

Speaker 50 got out of bed.

Speaker 58 Bob said they had to be somewhere by around nine, so a little while later he returned to check on his wife.

Speaker 63 He said it sounded like she was still in the shower.

Speaker 50 I opened the door.

Speaker 50 She locked me to see if she was, you know, just okay.

Speaker 50 Yeah,

Speaker 50 that's something she did.

Speaker 50 And

Speaker 50 she was laying on the floor.

Speaker 50 I

Speaker 50 basically went into a shot seeing her there. I got to necessitated.

Speaker 41 He described what happened next: a desperate attempt to administer CPR, which included moving his wife several times.

Speaker 58 First in the large bathroom, then all the way into the bedroom.

Speaker 50 Any sign of white girl from Muslims.

Speaker 50 I can't see her color. And I drew up the end of the dream towards the bay window that she had

Speaker 50 waited wanting to be able to see her in his mouth, suspended her as I was still in the doorway of the bathroom, which was narrowly gardening.

Speaker 45 But go against his medical training and move his gravely injured wife almost 50 feet?

Speaker 50 Why would you have moved her

Speaker 50 where she was? I was moving her because I thought she was breathing. It was still a darkened area where you couldn't maybe see well.
We have this guy next to her.

Speaker 50 Why not take her out of the shower, get her in a comfortable position, a bad move, and do all your work right there? Why not?

Speaker 50 I was in complete shock and trauma from it.

Speaker 50 So

Speaker 50 why try to put her in a comfortable position? Do you have noticed any stiffness of her muscles or her vibes in any way?

Speaker 50 Not that I've noticed.

Speaker 50 And when you're when you're performing the mouth to mouth,

Speaker 50 are you able to do this? Are you able to open her mouth

Speaker 50 without any great effort on your part?

Speaker 50 I don't remember any effort there. I remember getting it to open the mouth.

Speaker 50 I gave it to you.

Speaker 68 But that didn't fit with what Jenna said in her interview. Her jaw was really

Speaker 68 bad.

Speaker 19 I didn't go into cross-examination mode because that was the agreement that we had, that I would not cross-examine him. I would just ask him questions.

Speaker 51 And he had plenty of questions left.

Speaker 19 He was going to explain to me all of this blood that made me suspicious.

Speaker 50 I also want to tell you, in all fairness, that on the headboard, there are at least nine blood spanners from your wife.

Speaker 50 And blood spatter on the ceiling,

Speaker 50 blood on the floor where the body was rested, blood spatter on the

Speaker 50 wall. Let me ask you:

Speaker 50 do you have any explanation for that?

Speaker 19 The irony of it is when we got to the crescendo of the moment of the interview, and I said, how did that blood get there? I don't know. And

Speaker 19 you really can't pick it up on the tape, but I looked at his lawyer, like to say, what are we doing here?

Speaker 19 I thought this was the whole point of it. And I was stunned when he said that.

Speaker 51 So Bob Newlander's story had problems.

Speaker 46 D.A.

Speaker 51 Fitzpatrick reached out again to the current medical examiner who had been challenged by Mary and other pathologists who'd reviewed the case.

Speaker 44 And in the summer of 2014, almost two years after Leslie died, he changed his opinion to homicide.

Speaker 19 He changed the manner of death. He did.
You know, it takes some professional courage to say I was wrong.

Speaker 67 The change on the death certificate was enough for D.A.

Speaker 44 Fitzpatrick to finally make a move.

Speaker 22 There was an arrest this morning of Robert Newlander.

Speaker 38 The obstetrician who'd brought so many lives into the world was now accused of taking one, charged with second-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence.

Speaker 44 In Syracuse, the story was headline news.

Speaker 86 He's accused of killing his wife Leslie and covering it up to make it look like she fell in the shower.

Speaker 41 Through his attorney, Dr.

Speaker 68 Newlander firmly denied it all.

Speaker 83 In 40 years of criminal practice, I have never had a client whose innocence I believe in more firmly than him.

Speaker 28 And Megan says there were plenty of people in town who didn't believe that Dr.

Speaker 59 Newlander was a killer, including members of Leslie's own family.

Speaker 20 You had his children who were standing by him from the beginning, and you had her siblings who were also standing by him, which I think was a really powerful symbol for the community.

Speaker 20 Because one would think that if he had killed his wife, her siblings, Leslie's siblings, would not be standing by him, but they were.

Speaker 25 Did people commend you for standing up or did some people turn on you?

Speaker 21 It's a small community and some people felt, well good, someone's speaking up for Leslie, but other people felt like,

Speaker 21 why

Speaker 21 are you even pursuing this? Can't you just let things rest where they are? This is terrible for the children. They don't deserve this.
They don't, but I didn't kill her.

Speaker 27 This is about standing up for Leslie and letting people know that, you know, domestic violence happens in all kinds of homes and she didn't deserve this.

Speaker 37 Whether or not Bob Newlander killed his wife wouldn't be up to Leslie's friends.

Speaker 45 It would be up to a jury to decide.

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Speaker 41 In the spring of 2015, Dr.

Speaker 84 Bob Newlander went on trial for his wife's murder.

Speaker 86 More compelling testimony today is we.

Speaker 20 All eyes were on this trial. I mean, our crews basically lived at the courthouse during this time,

Speaker 20 and everyone was waiting on bated breath to see what would be the next development.

Speaker 67 DA Bill Fitzpatrick was joined by Assistant District Attorney Melinda McGonagall.

Speaker 41 This trial was one of the most publicized trials that this area has seen.

Speaker 24 I try not to pay a lot of attention to that, whether there's publicity or not. When I'm in trial mode, I'm focused on that.

Speaker 44 Cameras were not allowed in court, but each day, those crews captured the same dramatic scene in the hallway.

Speaker 20 Bob was flanked side by side with his children, with Leslie's siblings, with family and friends, and his attorney. They wanted the entire community to know, we stand by our dad.

Speaker 56 Did you worry that the jury would see that her own family is standing behind Bob Newlander?

Speaker 47 I mean, could he really have killed her if

Speaker 47 they're supporting him?

Speaker 19 Yeah, Melinda and I used to joke during the trial: you know, who's got hug bob duty today?

Speaker 28 And not only that, you have a doctor.

Speaker 19 Right. I've got a very, very likable guy who brings babies into the world.

Speaker 41 And that was exactly the message Newlander's defense attorney tried to convey to the jury.

Speaker 20 It was. There's no reason why this man who loved his wife more than anything would ever try to harm her.

Speaker 37 The medical examiner got it right the the first time, his attorney said.

Speaker 28 Leslie's death was an accident.

Speaker 41 The defense called a pathologist who looked at the same reports and concluded Leslie's head injuries were consistent with a fall in the shower.

Speaker 32 In his videotaped interview, Bob had suggested his wife's fall was caused by vertigo.

Speaker 50 Could you tell us about that for Vertigo? What physician is going to see for Vertigo?

Speaker 50 She was in the process of getting what's called physical therapy for Vertigo, and she was also doing exercises, aversion exercises for her on a regular

Speaker 50 daily basis.

Speaker 47 Leslie's sister told the jury that Leslie had suffered dizzy spells not long before her death.

Speaker 28 And a friend testified that on a trip to Israel the previous winter, he'd seen Leslie fall.

Speaker 20 Part of the defense's strategy was to play up this idea that she had vertigo and that that could account for the reason that she slipped and fell in the shower that day.

Speaker 68 As for all that blood in the bedroom, the defense said that couldn't be trusted.

Speaker 51 Paramedics had trampled all over the scene.

Speaker 58 And that blood spatter all around Leslie's bed?

Speaker 51 The defense said that could have come from a long-sleeve shirt New Lander was wearing.

Speaker 20 He said, I was racing against time to save my beloved wife. I had a bloody shirt on, you know, from her injuries.

Speaker 20 I was covered in blood, ripped the shirt off to try to, you know, administer CPR, and that that could account for the blood being spattered everywhere.

Speaker 45 And the defense argued, if Leslie's death was a a murder, then what has she been struck with?

Speaker 67 Even the DA couldn't say.

Speaker 29 You had no murder weapon. You had no one who had actually seen the crime happen.
You had no confession, no video.

Speaker 19 Yeah, I thought it was an uphill battle.

Speaker 67 The police had packed up and left right after the ME gave his opinion.

Speaker 68 The defense pointed out they'd hardly done any investigating that day.

Speaker 20 The defense definitely blamed the police for a botched investigation.

Speaker 67 And certainly, said the defense, if Bob had done the unthinkable, his own daughter wouldn't be standing in his corner.

Speaker 68 With emotions running high, Jenna, by then 25, took the stand in her father's defense.

Speaker 20 She was incredibly fragile. She had lost her beloved mother, and by all accounts, they were best friends.
They were incredibly close. And now she has to take the stand in the trial of her father.

Speaker 20 Everyone was watching and waiting and wondering: what will she say?

Speaker 28 How will she act?

Speaker 55 Jenna told the jury about that horrific September morning. Oh my God, my mother, you slight moment.

Speaker 51 How she'd called 911, then came running to help just as her dad was pulling her mom out of the shower.

Speaker 64 It was a heartbreaking story, but in it, the DA saw plenty of inconsistencies.

Speaker 41 You had a big problem with her testimony.

Speaker 19 Boy, did I ever.

Speaker 45 On the stand, Jenna said she didn't remember seeing blood in the bedroom until after her mother had been moved.

Speaker 41 But DA Fitzpatrick told the jury to listen to what Jenna said on on that 911 call as she approached the scene.

Speaker 19 Wait a minute, there shouldn't be blood anywhere. Mom is still in the shower and she can't see mom.

Speaker 56 Jenna is seeing blood in the bedroom before her mom's even been moved.

Speaker 19 No question about it.

Speaker 41 In court, Jenna testified that she helped her dad move her mother. The DA says that contradicted what she said in her taped interview and on the 911 call.

Speaker 19 It's heartbreaking to listen to. Don't move her.
I mean this is a 24-year-old telling the

Speaker 19 60-year-old doctor and she's pleading with him to do that. Yet he continues obviously to move her.
I don't mean to pile on her grief. I consider her victim number two.

Speaker 41 The DA believed Bob Newlander had used his daughter as part of a cover-up, calling her to the scene of the crime as he pretended to try to save the woman he had just violently assaulted.

Speaker 19 He had to make efforts to cover her up because of the violent assault that had already taken place. If he leaves her in the shower, how's he going to explain that to the EMTs?

Speaker 56 You argued that there was just too much blood in that bedroom from a slip and fall in the shower.

Speaker 29 Right.

Speaker 24 She allegedly fell in the shower, but she's 50, 60 feet in the bedroom, and then there's blood spatter on the wall.

Speaker 41 The prosecutor said they believed Bob disposed of evidence, too.

Speaker 28 In fact, the family housekeeper told the jury she was certain that Leslie's bed sheets had been changed.

Speaker 24 She noticed that the sheets that were on the bed were not the ones that she had put on the bed the previous Monday, and the bed didn't look the way she made it.

Speaker 24 I mean, she made the bed a particular way.

Speaker 28 Your theory is that he, Dr.

Speaker 29 Newlander, took the sheets off the bed and washed them?

Speaker 51 No, he got rid of them.

Speaker 28 And there was one more detail that the prosecution said was part of staging the scene.

Speaker 51 It was something that none of the professional investigators noticed, but was pointed out by Fitzpatrick's own daughter.

Speaker 41 At the time, Sarah Fitzpatrick was a college forensics major and was looking at the crime scene photos from her dad's case.

Speaker 41 In a picture of the nightstand, she stared at the coffee cup Bob said he brought to Leslie and something jumped out at her.

Speaker 88 Something always caught my attention with that photo of the nightstand.

Speaker 26 It's bright white amongst other objects.

Speaker 70 We should see blood on that.

Speaker 87 I mean, we're zooming in on this photo, seeing minuscule drops of blood on these water bottles and this tissue box, and it should should be obvious to see blood on that coffee cup.

Speaker 32 What did that say to you?

Speaker 88 That that coffee cup was inserted into the scene after the bloodletting event occurred in the bedroom.

Speaker 33 Still, there was a rather big hole in the state's case.

Speaker 41 It was something the prosecution had not told the jury.

Speaker 19 Coming up, this case has been a travesty from start to finish. The jury reaches a verdict.
Then comes the twist. I was stunned.

Speaker 21 Stunned. Were you angry?

Speaker 19 I'll keep my emotions to myself. When dateline continues.

Speaker 33 After eight days of testimony, Bob Newlander's case was about to go to the jury, but something was missing.

Speaker 29 You know that jurors like to have motive. They like to understand why someone could do something so heinous.

Speaker 19 I told the jury, I said, look, I don't know why he killed her. I can suggest to you, though, that this was not

Speaker 19 a perfect marriage.

Speaker 51 The DA did not call Leslie's friends like Nevin to share what they knew about Bob and Leslie's relationship.

Speaker 2 That meant the jury never heard about the text messages Bob sent asking Nevin to stay out of their marriage.

Speaker 56 Why did you not call Nevin Roby to the stand?

Speaker 19 I think it would have have been distracting. I don't think it was a serious relationship.
It would have been too tangential.

Speaker 41 So Nevin didn't get to tell the jury that the separation was imminent and that Leslie was making plans to move out.

Speaker 33 Or this potentially explosive story.

Speaker 72 She started talking about Bob and how he's acting very erratic.

Speaker 2 Nevin says that at their last lunch, Leslie told him about an incident with Bob.

Speaker 68 It happened in the bathroom.

Speaker 72 He came to the bathroom one day and he was like really kind of like semi-aggressive and not aggressive to her physically.

Speaker 72 She was just like kind of like verbally and then he'd he'd like leave quickly so i was like well do you feel afraid and she's like no not really but nevin's instincts kicked in and i was just kind of like well then don't don't stay there then you have a lot of friends in this area you have money stay at a hotel

Speaker 41 according to nevin leslie said she didn't want to do that

Speaker 63 When Nevin found out Leslie died in the shower, he was immediately reminded of that bathroom incident he says Leslie told him about.

Speaker 72 Yeah, I was like,

Speaker 19 no way.

Speaker 25 So you put bathroom and shower.

Speaker 21 I was just like,

Speaker 72 you got to be kidding me.

Speaker 25 Too much of a coincidence?

Speaker 72 Way too much of a coincidence, you know, I mean, come on.

Speaker 45 But none of that came out in the trial.

Speaker 20 The jury was left wondering, what do we know about why he would, you know, murder his wife?

Speaker 45 The jurors deliberated for three days and then announced they'd reached a verdict.

Speaker 20 It was one of those moments where you could hear a pin drop in the courtroom. What will the jury decide?

Speaker 62 The Newlander family walked to the courtroom arm in arm, both Jenna and brother Ari clinging to their dad.

Speaker 41 The tension was suffocating as the four-person rose to deliver the verdict.

Speaker 38 Guilty.

Speaker 41 Guilty of murdering his wife in the second degree and tampering with physical evidence.

Speaker 19 Normally at that point in a trial, a prosecutor gets up, turns around, reaches out to the victim's family, and you hug, and there's a lot of tears involved. And

Speaker 19 it's why we do what we do as prosecutors.

Speaker 73 Not in this case.

Speaker 19 In this case, you get the evil eye, you know, I hope you die.

Speaker 20 When I recall Jenna yelling out to her dad, I know you didn't do this. I love you.

Speaker 32 Bob's defense attorney vowed to fight on.

Speaker 83 Bob Newlander is the most honorable person I have ever met.

Speaker 19 This case has been a travesty from start to finish.

Speaker 83 It is not finished.

Speaker 44 Three months later, Bob Newlander was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Speaker 41 It had been a trying few years for Leslie's friends, but they felt at peace with the roles they'd played.

Speaker 27 Do I wish I didn't have to go through this?

Speaker 47 Absolutely.

Speaker 21 It's been difficult. Some people don't talk to me.
Other people say, I'm glad you spoke up for Leslie.

Speaker 20 Once he was sentenced, most people thought case closed. You know, he's going to spend this time in prison for the death of his wife, and that's the last that we will hear from or of Dr.

Speaker 21 Newlander.

Speaker 35 But that thought couldn't have been more wrong.

Speaker 45 After the trial an alternate juror contacted the defense saying one of the jurors had been receiving information about the case.

Speaker 20 They found that juror number 12 had not only just received media alerts, that she received upwards of 7,000 text messages from family and friends throughout the trial asking her questions about the case.

Speaker 19 6,997 of them had nothing to do with the case. The problematic emails were there was a text message from her father before she was selected as a juror.
Quote, make sure he's guilty, close quote.

Speaker 19 Then there were three text messages, I believe, from a friend. What's going on? What did you think about Jenna? Is the scary guy there?

Speaker 48 Defense attorneys filed an appeal based on juror misconduct. Motions were filed.
Several hearings were held.

Speaker 33 The appeal went all the way to the state's highest court.

Speaker 89 The next appeal on this this afternoon's calendar is people of the state of New York versus Robert Newlander.

Speaker 29 You all felt confident that this did not affect the outcome of the trial.

Speaker 19 100% certainty it had nothing to do with her verdict.

Speaker 38 But ultimately, the court's seven-judge panel unanimously disagreed with the DA and threw out the verdict.

Speaker 19 I was stunned. Stunned.

Speaker 56 Not only is Bob Newlander granted a new trial, but he's released from prison.

Speaker 19 Right, over our objection, he's released on bail.

Speaker 86 Robert, there's a lot of people that think you shouldn't be out of prison.

Speaker 87 What do you say about that?

Speaker 21 Were you angry?

Speaker 19 I'll keep my emotions to myself.

Speaker 36 Do you have anything to say at all?

Speaker 11 I just want to be with my family. Then please just give us some time.

Speaker 63 The defense hailed it as a victory, but Bob Newlander was not free and clear.

Speaker 28 The DA could try him again, but would he?

Speaker 28 You had a big decision to make.

Speaker 29 You had to decide if you were going to prosecute Bob Newlander again.

Speaker 19 I have to live in the real world. I think I can't do this again.

Speaker 19 Coming up, trial number two: a new defense team, new evidence, and renewed support.

Speaker 30 My entire family is standing behind him after 10 years. Do you think we'd be with him if we thought he was guilty?

Speaker 19 Would the verdict be different this time?

Speaker 41 By the summer of 2018, Bob Newlander was a free man.

Speaker 67 For Mary Jim Bellik, after years of being involved in the case of her friend, it was a crushing development.

Speaker 21 I was shocked, but again, even when things seem completely straightforward, life just isn't straightforward. Things happen.

Speaker 46 D.A.

Speaker 58 Bill Fitzpatrick faced a tough decision whether to try him for murder all over again.

Speaker 19 There is nothing more exhausting than going through a trial, unless you're young and have a great disposition. But me, you know,

Speaker 24 I'm in the seventh inning. You know, to think about we have to do this again.
You know, it was a lot to get to where we were.

Speaker 19 But you have to do it. Somebody's got to speak to Leslie.

Speaker 86 Jury selection began this morning in Onondaga County Court. Ten jurors have already been seated.

Speaker 45 It was March 2022 when Bob Newlander went on trial again for the murder of his wife.

Speaker 87 Any messages to the community today?

Speaker 51 By that point, the former doctor had been out on bail for three years.

Speaker 41 His wife, Leslie, had been gone for nearly a decade.

Speaker 29 Did you wonder if the family was still supporting him?

Speaker 21 I did wonder that. It's a dark part of this story.

Speaker 90 Ari, do you still believe that your father is innocent and your mother slipped in the shower?

Speaker 84 The family wasn't saying much, but it was clear that nothing had changed newlander's children arrived for trial number two like they had before by their dad's side

Speaker 19 da fitzpatrick was again joined by ada melinda mcdonagal and there was a fresh face on the prosecution team well i only have one assistant da that has a master's degree in forensics and i only have one daughter fitzpatrick's daughter sarah was now an assistant district attorney in his office what a unique experience to bring your daughter in on your team and the irony isn't lost to me, the relationship between the defendant and his daughter, and then I'm bringing my daughter in to get, at her age, the experience of a lifetime.

Speaker 56 Was there some pressure on you that I need to get this right, I need to impress my dad and feel worthy that I'm on this team?

Speaker 87 Absolutely. I mean, it's not just impress my dad, it's impress my boss.

Speaker 41 By and large, the prosecution's case remained the same.

Speaker 19 Same theory of same 911 calls, same housekeeper, same photographs, with one significant addition.

Speaker 28 A blood spotter expert new to the case made an interesting discovery while examining photos of Leslie's headboard.

Speaker 19 And below the mattress line, he drew Melinda's attention to a very, very small, maybe four millimeters piece of what he believed to be some type of tissue.

Speaker 24 And said, you know, it might still be there. So I went out to DeWitt PD, pulled that section of the headboard, and lo and behold, there was that piece still there attached to the headboard.

Speaker 24 So then we had it tested.

Speaker 46 It turned out to be fatty tissue, which they believe came from Leslie's open head wound.

Speaker 24 It told us that she was assaulted on the bed.

Speaker 28 So this was a big deal for the second trial.

Speaker 24 This was huge, yeah.

Speaker 86 Tonight, we're giving you a look at the bombshell piece of evidence that was at the core of the prosecution's argument.

Speaker 41 In the second trial, D.A.

Speaker 58 Fitzpatrick tried to tell the jury more about a possible motive.

Speaker 41 He said things were tense in the Newlander marriage, that the couple was separating and that Leslie was moving into an apartment.

Speaker 19 There's no question that this was a rage-based homicide. This was not carefully planned and premeditated.

Speaker 19 Whatever the anger was about her flirting with another guy, with the expense of selling the house, her new apartment, moving, whatever that stew

Speaker 19 ultimately became, that's resulted in her death.

Speaker 51 Bob Newlander came to court with a new high-powered defense team.

Speaker 28 What did you see the defense do differently this time? What was there

Speaker 19 change in strategy? I think the first trial, Bob Newlander couldn't have done this because he's such a wonderful human being and the science doesn't add up.

Speaker 19 This trial, Bob Newlander is a wonderful human being, but the science is overwhelming that this was a slip and fall.

Speaker 55 The defense's own forensic expert disputed the prosecution's new finding about the tissue on the headboard.

Speaker 29 The defense said that there should have been more brain tissue, blood, and hair, if that's really where she was attacked.

Speaker 24 There could have been more blood, there could have been more brain matter, and he could have cleaned it up.

Speaker 37 And motive?

Speaker 28 The defense argued the state was pulling at straws.

Speaker 48 There was nothing that would have caused Bob to fly into such a rage and kill his wife of 30 years.

Speaker 33 Their son Ari told the jury that even though his parents were separating, he never saw them in a physical fight.

Speaker 47 Nor, for that matter, had Leslie's sister.

Speaker 28 She testified in support support of her brother-in-law, saying she knew of no physical altercations between Bob and Leslie.

Speaker 28 But perhaps the biggest change to the defense's case was who they chose not to call, Jenna Newlander.

Speaker 19 Jenna Newlander is the quintessential definition of the missing witness. She had intimate knowledge of the facts.

Speaker 19 She would naturally be expected to support her father's position that this was a slip and fall in the shower, and she's available.

Speaker 41 The DA's office spoke with jurors from the first trial, and they said Jenna's Jenna's testimony actually hurt Newlander.

Speaker 19 Jenna's testimony was so disastrous that she ultimately was a huge part in convicting her father.

Speaker 44 So without hearing from Jenna in trial number two, the jury went off to deliberate.

Speaker 60 How long do you expect your deliberations to take once they begin?

Speaker 21 I have no idea.

Speaker 84 And just six hours later, everyone was called back into the courtroom.

Speaker 59 There was a verdict.

Speaker 86 Robert Newlander was found guilty by a jury of 12 men and women, found guilty of murdering his wife, Leslie.

Speaker 19 We were professionally very, very satisfied. As I said many times in this case, somebody's got to speak for Leslie.

Speaker 51 The DA credits his former colleague and Leslie's friend Mary with igniting the case.

Speaker 41 Your story is one of the most incredible stories I've heard.

Speaker 25 And without

Speaker 35 you doing what you did, there may have never been justice for Leslie.

Speaker 21 Maybe not, but that

Speaker 21 kind of has been a life goal for me to speak for the dead. And so to speak for my friend

Speaker 21 was an honor.

Speaker 64 After the verdict, Bob Newlander was immediately taken into custody and later sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

Speaker 51 Mr.

Speaker 90 Bach, any comments on that guilty verdict for your client?

Speaker 52 Obviously, we're disappointed and we do plan to appeal.

Speaker 30 My father is innocent.

Speaker 45 His son Ari immediately called the verdict.

Speaker 46 A travesty of justice.

Speaker 30 I mean, the fact that my entire family is standing behind him after 10 years, do you think we'd be with him if we thought he was guilty?

Speaker 30 I can assure you, every one of my family members would have been taking the stand against my father if he had done anything to my mother.

Speaker 30 If she were here, she'd be disgusted with how this community has treated her family. The district attorney does not speak for my mother.

Speaker 30 No one who claims that they're speaking for my mother is actually there for her.

Speaker 19 I don't think Aerie wants to come to grips with this. Ari was not there.
I think he clearly loves his father and wants to believe that this was a slip and fall in the shower, and that's his right.

Speaker 19 I bear him no ill will.

Speaker 76 For Leslie's friends who fought for justice, now's the time to cherish memories of the woman they admired and loved so dearly.

Speaker 27 I think she needs peace in heaven. Leslie didn't deserve to die.

Speaker 21 Maybe at least with this

Speaker 21 conviction,

Speaker 21 we can think about the woman she was and her laughter and her beauty and her generosity and hold on to that.

Speaker 19 That's all for this edition of Dateline. We'll see you again next Friday at 9-8 Central.
And of course, I'll see you each weeknight for NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt for all of us at NBC News.

Speaker 19 Good night.

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Speaker 17 Warning, this product contains nicotine.

Speaker 18 Nicotine is an addictive chemical.